enlarge

Photo courtesy Stephanie LimmerKennebunk Free Library board member and fundraiser chairwoman Kate Moxham, left, and library director Stephanie Limmer pose with books from Literary Feast.

FOR MORE

FOR DETAILS on the evening (including the books and dinners featured), call 985-2173, ext. 102 or visit www.kennebunklibrary.org.

Kennebunk Free Library supporters will turn a new page in fundraising efforts this Saturday. Rather than checking out a book for personal enjoyment, local families are inviting other residents to join them for a Literary Feast, celebrating various books and the library that makes them available.

"We have 11 (private residences) hosting a dinner in their homes, all each based on a book of their choosing," said library director Stephanie Limmer. "For example, one is a full-on French cuisine dinner based on the Julia Child (memoir) 'My Life in France.' We asked our hosts to think of their own themes and what they would cook. Each has a limited amount of space in their home. Some will serve a meal for six and others for parties up to 12."

Limmer, who was poised to host a meal, ended up serving as an anchor for the event. She will make an appearance at each of the dinner parties to give away a copy of the different books being featured in each home. "The dinner hosts each will decide, in a creative way, how those books will be won by their guests," said Limmer.

To keep a sense of mystery, dinner guests were not told the identities of their hosts before making dinner reservations. Rather, they made their selections based on a book theme and corresponding menu.

Stephanie and Dan Limmer met with hosts in advance to talk about themes and write out creative teasers announcing the specifics of each dinner party for potential diners.

"Teri Collard, a patron and volunteer who directs our second largest fundraiser, is offering a dinner based on 'Charlie and the Chocolate Factory,"' said Limmer. "She's doing an entire meal based on chocolate. Tickets to it were sold out on the second day. She's really taken off with the theme and created and delivered gifts bags to her guests, including handmade Willy Wonka chocolate bars, each with a golden ticket inside, inviting them to attend."

Collard said she and her husband, Paul Coughlin, love children's literature, cooking and entertaining. Their party is geared to celebrate the child within their seven adult guests. Chocolate martinis will be served when they arrive, followed by a meal of goat cheese and arugula salad, topped with cocoa nibs, shaved red onion and a reduced balsamic vinaigrette. The main entree is a traditional chicken mole in a peanut butter and chocolate sauce, roasted asparagus and red beans with rice. Dessert will be chocolate ice cream and an adult Rice Crispies treat and a Godiva digestif.

"We had two friends, who kindly consented to be our guinea pigs for a start-to-finish trial run meal to see, from a timing and serving standpoint, what would really work well," said Collard, who was pleased with the end result.

Library volunteers Jenn and Alex Bordas are inviting 12 Red Sox Nation fans to a Fenway Ballpark-style mixer. They will deck out their digs with signed baseballs and T-shirts, photographs, pennants and other baseball memorabilia.

"We're going to serve high-end hors d'ouevres and desserts with a New England theme, like lobster rolls, sushi sliders, Yankee succotash and Boston cream pie (among other things)." Red Sox trivia and giveaways will be included.

Kate and Todd Moxham will "swine and dine" eight dinner guests – paying tribute to E.B. White's "Charlotte's Web" and its main character – a pig named Wilbur. Bacon and pork items will feature prominently, including a bacon-wrapped, maple-glazed pork loin.

"We had a great time coming up with (menu items and party favors that were) tongue-in-cheek, humorous and surrounding bacon," said Kate. "This is the first time we've hosted something like this. I'm beyond excited."

Kate is a library board member and chairwoman of its past two benefit galas, including last year's dinner-dance that raised about $8,000. The library annually is required to raise 25 percent of its operating costs, with the town of Kennebunk paying 75 percent,...